Cart top x-ray cassette holder

ABSTRACT

A cart top X-ray cassette holder having an elongated and substantially rectangularly shaped frame. The frame is of a length of little greater than the height of an average adult human being and may serve as a stretcher. Its top is substantially flat and made of a radiolucent material. Positioned beneath in close proximity and substantially parallel thereto is a bottom wall member. A plurality of film receiving compartments are formed within the frame by guide members attached to the top and bottom wall members with the mouths of said film receiving compartments being formed by the vertical open spaces around the periphery of the frame between the guides or side wall members. The frame is designed to have the open mouth of adjacent film receiving compartment formed along different peripheral sides and to have each adjacent film receiving compartment overlap each other along at least one edge where substantially the entire top of the frame can be employed for the taking of X-rays of a human being positioned thereon.

United States Patent 1 1 1111 3,774,045 Trott Nov. 20, 1973 CART TOPX-RAY CASSETTE HOLDER Primary Examiner-William F. Lindquist [76]Inventor: Raymond H. Trott, White Oaks, Barlow et Hope. R.I. 02831 [57]ABSTRACT [22] Filed: Sept 1972 A cart top X-ray cassette holder havingan elongated [21] Appl. No.: 292,936 and substantially rectangularlyshaped frame. The

frame is of a length of little greater than the height of q ApphcahonData an average adult human being and may serve as a P 0f 116,391,stretcher. Its top is substantially flat and made of a ra- 1971abandoned diolucent material. Positioned beneath in close proximity andsubstantially parallel thereto is a bottom [52] US. Cl. 250/444, 250/470wan member. A plurality of film receiving compam lift. Cl. ments areformed i i the frame guide members [58] Fleld 0 Search 250/50, 54, 55,56, attached to the p and bottom n members with the 250/57 68 mouths ofsaid film receiving compartments being formed by the vertical openspaces around the periph- [56] References Cited ery of the frame betweenthe guides or side wall mem- UNITED STA S PATENTS bers. The frame isdesigned to have the open mouth of 3,065,344 11/1962 Chervenka 250/58adjacent film receiving compartment formed along 1,453,473 5/1923McKenna.... 250/66 different peripheral sides and to have each adjacent3,215,834 11/ 1965 Tayman 250/54 film receiving compartment overlap eachother along FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS at least one edge wheresubstantially the entire top of 1,190,203 3/1959 France 250/58 the framebe elnPloyed the takmg of x'rays a human being positloned thereon.

2 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures /.9 /7 /22 l l ||li l 1 \r E 1 I H 1 I 11"1111 111 1/4/ 11 1.1 .11 J i 1 3 111 1 I .I 111 1 11' '1 1 1" .l 111 I1 22 l I J 1 CART TOP X-RAY CASSETTE HOLDER CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATEDAPPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of my applicationSer. No. 116,391, filed Feb. 18, l97l (now abandoned).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a portable tableor cart top platform which is placed under a human being for the purposeof making an X-ray examination of the patient. Now many patients broughtto a hospital, and particularly unconscious accident victims, havemultiple injuries, and, require a number or series of X-ray pictures todetermine the extent of their injuries. With many of the present X-raytables it is necessary to constantly reposition the patient upon thetable in order to place that part of the patients anatomy to bephotographed over the specific areas that hold the X-ray cassettes. Inother cases the patient had his body raised up so that the X-raycassette could be placed under his body. All of these instances andadditional cases where the patient had to be returned to the X-ray tablefor more X- rays, made for repeated handling movements to the patientsbody. These movements can be dangerous and very disturbing to thepatient and can also be very detrimental to his recovery. There arefurther instances where the patients bodyhas been so seriously injuredthat only minimal movement should be attempted, especially in cases ofpossible back or spinal fractures. Often in multiple injury cases,diagnoses are missed, only to be detected later when it is too late toreduce or correct them.

In none of the cases where an operating table is used is there anarrangement for the full length of the adults body available for X-raywithout interruptions in the X-ray plates used. A good example of thisis in the US. Pat. to Chervenka 3,065,344 of Nov. 20, 1962, where asurgical operating table is illustrated having sections for the head,back and shoulders, feet and legs of the patient, each one of thesesections being spaced from its adjacent section so that there is aninterruption of any X-rays that might be taken designed to show theentire length of the body. No arrangement is provided to cover thespacing between the sections. Further, this being an operating table,the patient must be moved onto this table from some stretcher or thelike.

A further example is shown in French patent 1,190,203 where an operatingtable is shown which has sufficient spacing between the X-ray permeabletop and some base for the insertion of cassettes which are positioned intheseslots one at a time and may he slid along the slots without anyguide whatsoever. The operating table is of insufficient length toaccommodate the length of the adult human 'body.

Cassettes which are used are usually provided with an X-ray film whichis in a frame having a border which is more or less opaque and wouldinterfere with any X-ray attempted to be taken'through the border.

Consequently in order to get an uninterrupted X-ray picture ofthe'entire lengthof the human being some different arrangement must beprovided that is shown in either of the patents above referred to.

It is an object of the invention to provide a portable stretcher tableorca'fl top that provides a plurality of film receiving compartments so"positioned beneath its top wall member that any part of a 'patientplaced thereon may be X-rayed without the necessity of repositioning orlifting him.

It is also an object of the invention to provide an X-ray platform thatmay be placed on top of the mobile beds thus eliminating the need totransport the patient to an X-ray table.

It is an object of the invention to provide an X-ray platform that coulddouble as a stretcher thus allowing a critically injured person to beinitially placed thereon or placed thereon upon arrival at the hospitalwhich would eliminate the need to move the patient needlessly untilcompletion of any necessary X-rays.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an X-ray platform ofan economical design which eliminates complex mechanical structure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a portable platformused for the purpose of taking X-rays of a human being placed thereon.It is basically an elongated substantially rectangular frame with thetop wall member made of a radiolucent material such as plywood. A bottomwall member is positioned with its top surface substantially parallel tothe top wall member and in close proximity thereto. A plurality of filmreceiving compartments are formed within said frame by guide membersattached to the top and bottom wall members with the mouths of the filmreceiving compartments being formed by the vertical open spaces aroundthe periphery of the frame between the side wall members. Into each ofthese film receiving compartments may be slid bordered X-ray cassettesof the same size with these compartments having openings along all fourof the vertical walls of the frame. The film receiving compartments areso positioned that the borders of X-ray cassettes positioned in adjacentcompartments overlap each other along at least one edge to the width ofthe borders whereby except for small strip areas around the primeter ofthe frame the whole body of a human being placed on top of the platformmay be X-rayed without the necessity of relocating or repositioning thebody. Arcuate cut out portions formed in the top and bottom walls at themouths of the film receiving compartments provide access to thecassettes for easier withdrawal.

The portable stretcher or cart top X-ray cassette holder is formed froma minimum number of parts which are quickly and easily assembled. Nocomplicated mechanical structure is required nor is it necessary to havetracks along which the cassettes may be slid. No hardware is involved inthe structure nor are there any adjustable parts.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the cart topX-ray cassette holder;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the device;

FIG. 3 is a view taken along line 33 of FIG. 2 showing in dot-dash linesthe position a cassette would have in its compartment;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of an X-ray cassette; and

FIG. 5 is a front elevation view of the X-ray cassette.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to FIGS. l-3 of thedrawings, the cart top X-ray cassette holder is generally designated bythe numeral 10. The top wall member 12 is rectangularly shaped and ismade of a radiolucent material such as plywood. Although not shown inthe drawings, a thin sheet of high pressure plastic laminate wouldnormally be adhered thereto to provide a surface which could easily becleansed of blood stains or other fluids dripped thereon. A plasticlayer would also aid in providing a surface of reduced friction forsliding the patients on and off. The bottom wall member 14 of the frameis parallel to the top wall member and spaced in close proximitythereto. Side wall or guide members l6, l7, 18, 19 and 20 have edgeswhich define guides for directing the edges of a cassette and areattached to the top and bottom wall members to form a plurality of filmreceiving compartments within the frame. Each film receiving compartmenthas a mouth formed by the vertical open spaces between the edges ofadjacent side wall members and direct the cassette generally at rightangles to the edges forming the open mouth through which it ispositioned. Each cassette comprises essentially a frame 26 containing anX-ray film plate 27. The frame 26 provides a border about the film plateso that the usable area of the plate is within the border. As seen inFIG. 3 the cassettes when inserted into the film receiving compartmentswould occupy the areas shown by dot dash lines and designated Normallyone cassette is exposed at a time and in order to be sure that all theareas of the patient are X-rayed, the adjacent film receivingcompartments are formed having their adjacent edges overlapping in adimension at least the dimension of two cassette frame borders such as26 (FIG. 3) so that the usable area of the film 27 within the border 26may be placed side by side after sequential exposures and removal fromthe frame with their edges abutting or slightly overlapping so thatthere will be no hiatus or interruption of continuity of the entirelength of the human body. The width of the cassettes are normally justslightly smaller than the width of the openings formed in the side wallsor guide members of the frame. The cassettes when inserted to their fullextent align themselves by surfacing against one of the inner faces ofone of the side walls or guide members and establish the desiredposition of border overlap as pointed out above. Arcuate cutout portions22 formed in the top and bottom wall members aid in withdrawing thecassettes from the film receiving compartments.

It will therefore be seen that there is provided a cart top X-raycassette holder of simple construction and in which a continuous X-raypicture of an injured individual may be taken since in its preferredform the X-ray opaque cassette frame border section has been effectivelyoverlapped from adjoining compartments such that either abutting X-rayfilms may be received or just partially overlapped films depending onthe dimensions actually utilized. The particular system employed addsgreat convenience to manual positioning of a cassette beneath a patientand insures that no area will be missed, which can readily happen withtraveling cassette holders such as have been provided in the past.

What is claimed is:

1. A cart top X-ray frame of a size to act as a stretcher to move withand receive a human patient in horizontal position and for receivingrectangular cassettes which have a peripheral border and are for use inX-ray examination of human patients, said frame being elongated toprovide long sides and ends and sub stantially rectangular in shape,said frame comprising a substantially flat radiolucent top wall member,a bottom wall member positioned in close proximity to the underside ofsaid top wall member and substantially parallel thereto, a plurality ofspaced guides located between said wall members along a first side ofsaid frame, each guide having a surface for directing an edge of acassette between said members in a line of direction at generally rightangles to said first side and spacing said wall members, a plurality ofspaced guides located between said wall members along a second side ofsaid frame, each guide having a surface for directing an edge of acassette between said members in a line of direction at generally rightangles to said second side and spacing said wall members, the facingsurfaces of said guides together with the wall members forming a mouth,portions of the mouths located in the first and second sides overlappingeach other, whereby the eassettes when positioned into the mouths fromthe first and second sides will provide an overlap of their edges inplan, said border being effectively overlapped so that films made byseparate exposures of the two cassettes so guided may be positioned inadjacency to exhibit an uninterrupted continuity of the human body.

2. A cart top X-ray frame as in claim 1 wherein at least one end wall isprovided with guides for directing a cassette at right angles thereto.

1. A cart top X-ray frame of a size to act as a stretcher to move withand receive a human patient in horizontal position and for receivingrectangular cassettes which have a peripheral border and are for use inX-ray examination of human patients, said frame being elongated toprovide long sides and ends and substantially rectangular in shape, saidframe comprising a substantially flat radiolucent top wall member, abottom wall member positioned in close proximity to the underside ofsaid top wall member and substantially parallel thereto, a plurality ofspaced guides located between said wall members along a first side ofsaid frame, each guide having a surface for directing an edge of acassette between said members in a line of direction at generally rightangles to said first side and spacing said wall members, a plurality ofspaced guides located between said wall members along a second side ofsaid frame, each guide having a surface for directing an edge of acassette between said members in a line of direction at generally rightangles to said second side and spacing said wall members, the facingsurfaces of said guides together with the wall members forming a mouth,portions of the mouths located in the first and second sides overlappingeach other, whereby the cassettes when positioned into the mouths fromthe first and second sides will provide an overlap of their edges inplan, said border being effectively overlapped so that films made byseparate exposures of the two cassettes so guided may be positioned inadjacency to exhibit an uninterrupted continuity of the human body.
 2. Acart top X-ray frame as in claim 1 wherein at least one end wall isprovided with guides for directing a cassette at right angles thereto.